With no disrespect intended to this country,
this section aims to better convey to our Western audience the
extreme hardships that face most residents in Togo, every day.

To imagine Lomé, start with a bustling
little city covered from head to toe in the red, sandy dust
upon which it sits. Most of the humble buildings - corrugated
iron sheds, earth huts and concrete structures - are in serious
disrepair. This includes the hospitals which a Westerner would
never dream of entering, should they be sick. In such places,
many patients sleep on the floor and bribes are sometimes
needed to access simple requirements such as oxygen; surely
the result of pitiful wages.

Lomé lacks all of the infrastructures that form the
backbone of the world that you know; a stable economy and
ample employment opportunities, decent roads, sewerage and
pollution control. There are no public toilets or garbage
collection programs in this city. The streets serve for this
purpose for the residents who, quiet simply, have no choice.
For some people safe and reliable running-water can only be
accessed at designated locations around the city and residents
are thus forced to transport the daily water supply back to
their house in large tubs which they carry on their heads.

As for the schools, imagine overcrowded classrooms where
the student to teacher ratio can sometimes blow out in excess
of 60:1. Fill these tiny classrooms with eager, hopeful, red-earth-stained
children who have to overcome tremendous odds just to complete
a high school education. The so-called "free" education
in this city is well and truly unaffordable for many parents.

You now need to add to this city an AIDS epidemic, with some
estimates indicating that 4.2% of the population are infected

For those willing, you could now look out of the nearest
window and out onto the world that you know - a place that
you probably hate from time to time. It probably seems like
a paradise now. That's because it is. Perhaps you could start
to question why it is, that some of us get to enjoy this "first
world" membership, whilst the majority of the human race
is denied this gold card. The answer to such a question is
not a pretty one. It is, however, part of an essential acknowledgement
that should be part of each and every step that we place on
this earth